Soldiers dropped sandbags from military helicopters to reinforce river embankments and evacuated residents as the worst flooding in years spread Tuesday to a broad swath of Central Europe, taking lives and destroying homes .
Heavy flooding has affected a large part of the region in recent days, including the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. There have been at least 17 deaths reported in the flooding, which follow heavy rainfall across the region.
Other places are now bracing for the flood waves, including two Central European gems: Budapest, the Hungarian capital on the Danube River, and Wroclaw, a city in southwestern Poland on the Oder River, its old town filled with architectural treasures.
Hungary's government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban deployed soldiers to reinforce barriers along the Danube, and thousands of volunteers assisted in filling sandbags in dozens of riverside settlements.
In Budapest, authorities closed the city's lower quays, which are expected to be breached by rising waters later Tuesday. The lower half of the city's iconic Margaret Island was also closed.
